What are the best practices for handling user input data in PHP forms to avoid errors related to session variables?

When handling user input data in PHP forms, it is important to sanitize and validate the data to prevent errors related to session variables. One common approach is to use PHP's filter_input function to sanitize the input data and validate it before storing it in session variables.

// Sanitize and validate user input data before storing it in session variables
$userInput = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'user_input', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

if ($userInput) {
    $_SESSION['user_input'] = $userInput;
} else {
    // Handle error, such as displaying a message to the user
}